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Tuesday, October 25, 2016

Bravo to Dustin Moskovitz, one of the
co-founders of Facebook, for sticking his head above the parapet, donating $35 million to help Democrats in the 2016 general election, and showing
the way for others in Silicon Valley. Those who follow his lead will prove how
much they really care about American democracy. Moskovitz published Compelled To Act, on Medium, explaining his reasons.

I understand why he had to think twice
before doing this. Organizations like the NRA and people like the Koch brothers
have used and still do use their power and wealth to lobby for the creation and
cementing of policies that benefit the donor and hurt everybody else by keeping
the inequality status quo in place and also damaging the environment. The
Republican Party has enabled them. The result is that the core of the GOP has
eroded away over time, leaving an empty space where true conviction once lay.

Inexorably that has left an environment
where somebody like Donald Trump can flourish. So it's easy to say that money
in politics is evil.

But it's a false equivalence. The money
isn't the problem; what people do with it, is. And not everybody who donates
does so out of self-interest. And in any case, that's only half of the
equation. The other half is what's done with the money.

Not every politician who accepts donations
feels themselves obliged to accept a chain around their neck that can be yanked
by the donor. The accusations that have been thrown at Hillary Clinton for
belonging to Wall Street, primarily because she accepted sums of money she
deserved for her bank speeches, are utterly unsubstantiated. Notably absent
have been specific examples of how she has done their bidding—talking dates,
people, policies. The same goes for the accusations against the Clinton
Foundation for accepting money from regimes that are sustained on inequality
and citizen abuse. Again, money is not the problem.

Republican donors' motives for plowing
money into the political system have been about self interest and the
corresponding behavior of GOP politicians has been to let themselves be yanked
on a chain.

But there is a world of difference between
that and Moskovitz's donation—and what will be done with the money. It will be
used to further equality and protect the environment.

And nobody can rationally accuse Moskovitz of self interest, because he is assisting, amongst others, the
presidential candidate who wants to raise taxes for the wealthy.

In his article, Moskovitz's assessment of Donald
Trump as a con artist whose only interest in the presidency is to promote his
brand is correct. Trump has always been a con-artist above all else, and that
brand of humanity is very good at what they do. He's a self-congratulatory, over-enabled,
out-of-control, narcissistic ego/megalo-maniac. The comparisons between him and
Hitler aren't shallow. The consequences of him winning the election won't be
either, not just for America but for the whole world. I think that in this
time, sitting on the fence is an abdication of social responsibility. Not
getting involved is a definitive choice tantamount to supporting Donald
Trump.

Moskovitz has refused to give press interviews to date or reveal his future plans, but he's committed to Hillary Clinton winning. Have a look at his Twitter page.